Swashbuckling! Romance! Robots! Explosions! Car chases! Derring-do!
Excitement! Thrills! All of these things I can promise you. Yes,
all of them. (NB: Not all of them.)

I'm an aspiring writer for children, and very modest cartoonist in
the making. I refuse to just write "From" and "To" in birthday
cards. (I take ages to write birthday cards for this reason.) I'm
fond of animals, and I think penguins are hilarious.

I like theme parks, funfairs, fetes, zoos... not keen on clubs. I
don't like going places where I can't hear the people I'm with. I'm
talkative, so this is a must.

I don't drink, although being from Somerset, I can still be
persuaded to drink cider. I don't mind going to the pub, although
I'd rather sit in a nice beer garden for a chat. I love films –
really, completely obsessed with them. I also read a lot. (Well,
okay, I own a lot of books and I will read them, I *definitely*
will, but which one first? Argh.)

Writing. Drawing. Seeing family and friends as often as I can. I
have a fun job in a theatre, which helps fund my filthy writing
habit. I spend much of my time getting from one place to another,
but whenever there's a spare minute (and a piece of paper), the
scribbling continues.

Writing. I have a small, palm-sized children's book published,
which sits on my bookcase between larger things. I have a degree,
which mostly serves as an attractive wall decoration, but
nonetheless, I'm proud of it. I tend to work hard even if it's just
a menial task. I'm known to procrastinate, but hey, who doesn't? On
a related note, I'm quite good at naps.

I taught myself to play drums, and am okay at that. I can also play
piano, albeit not much, and by ear. I have a spectacularly good
memory for worthless film and television trivia, such as where I've
seen an actor before. I've been told I make pretty good
coffee.

I get along well with dogs. I can lift heavy things for several
seconds. I am, much to the annoyance of my friends, very good at
Mario Kart Wii.

Lastly, I'm very good at spotting spelling mistakes and fixing
them. My heart sinks a little when I see an apostrophe in distress.

I love to read Dickens, Stephen King, Philip Ardagh and Terry
Pratchett. Recently read lots of Arthur Conan Doyle. Generally
obsessed with Douglas Adams. Other favourites include If Chins
Could Kill by Bruce Campbell, The Writer's Tale - Final Chapter by
Russell T Davies and Benjamin Cook, H. Rider Haggard's She and
Dracula. I like to think I'll read almost anything, as I'll buy
anything even remotely book-shaped in a charity shop.

My favourite film is Ed Wood, although I objectively believe Back
To The Future to be the greatest film ever made. (Come on. It is.)
Other favourites include Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang; The Adventures Of
Baron Munchausen; The Love Bug; The Truman Show; Groundhog Day; The
Haunting (1963); Tremors; Return to Oz and Misery.

I like a fair bit of music, but mostly The Beatles, Radiohead, The
Divine Comedy (and anything to do with Neil Hannon), Arcade Fire,
Elbow and R.E.M. I grew up with Blur, have a soft spot for the
Hives, and enjoy movie soundtracks. (Everything seems to sound like
Hans Zimmer these days, but that's no bad thing.)

As for food, erm, omelettes? Yes. I quite like omelettes. And
french bread. Also spaghetti bolognese that consists largely of
Dolmio. And mashed potato with lots of gravy. Classy, I know.

NB: Since television is clearly meant to be in here, I love to
watch Frasier, (a good episode of) The Simpsons, Eerie Indiana,
Doctor Who, Quantum Leap, The X-Files and early episodes of Buffy
and Angel. Recently watched 30 Rock, liked that a lot. Dad's Army's
great. Oh, Arrested Development.

* My laptop. Gosh, how spiffy it is. Though it breaks
sometimes.
* My books. I even have trouble letting go of the ones I didn't
like.
* My phone. It's annoyingly useful for almost everything - I've
become one of *them*, those people with a phone for a hand, who
just need to check Facebook *one more time*... (But I could totally
stop using it if I wanted to.)
* My DVDs and videos, because I utterly love them. If there's a
fire, I may waste valuable rescuing time trying to figure out which
ones I can live without. Also, it's good to have a lot of them so
you can introduce people to things like Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. It
needs to be done. Do you realise some people haven't even seen Back
To The Future?
* Good conversation. (Although now, ironically, I can't think of
much to say about it.)
* Something to scribble on.